Doctoral degree career monitoring

The number of people completing postgraduate qualifications has increased significantly in recent years. At the same time, the number of unemployed individuals with doctoral degrees has increased. Because of this, the question about employment of people with postgraduate degrees and the correspondence between education and work requires regular monitoring.

The doctoral degree career monitoring survey is sent to people who have completed a doctoral degree 23 years after graduation. The Aarresaari network implemented the first nationwide doctoral degree monitoring survey in spring 2007. The survey also collected employers' views on the labour markets for people with doctoral degrees. The next data collections were implemented in spring 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015. The latest doctoral degree career monitoring survey was conducted in autumn 2017.

Objective:The nationwide doctoral degree career monitoring survey jointly conducted by the universities seeks information about the quality and appropriateness of the employment of individuals with postgraduate qualifications, the early development of their work careers and satisfaction with the degree completed. Information is gathered mainly using a uniform survey form and process. This enables the nationwide collation and comparison of the data. The survey provides up-to-date information for universities' quality assurance and steering. Each university utilises its own data in the development of doctoral education and student counselling.

Target group:The target group for career monitoring are individuals with doctoral degrees completed 23 years earlier.

Processing of data:The survey implementation complies with the Personal Data Act (Henkilötietolaki 523/1999). The names of the survey recipients are processed only during posting and already at the first saving stage the answers are linked to background information (e.g. field of education) received from the student register with a code number. The answers are processed with utmost confidentiality and the results are reported statistically so that answers by individual respondents cannot be identified.